Bank Scam Spam through this Forum

Bank Scam Spam through this Forum

I just received an email from Miss Celina Doudou in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa through Roadfood Forums. It's the usual bank scam, wealthy relative left her $5,500,000 that she needs to get into the US, would I email her, yaddayaddayadda.

What's disturbing is that I only opened it because it looked like it was from a fellow Roadfooder, addressed to my screen name. Now I'm going to have to think twice before opening any emails marked from RoadfooForums.

I thought spamming was not allowed here - anyone else seen one of these? What's going on?

Anyone with an e-mail address can sign up as a member. If they elect to be spammers, we try to shut them down ASAP, but there is no way to prevent people like this from posting or e-mailing fellow members. I believe we already have this person locked, but you need to provide their roadfood ID name so we can be certain.

Why turn off these emails.... that is the easy way. I personally prefer to mess with these people.

I always respond and thank them for emailing me. I also tell them I am glad to help, send me more information and then I send them a bunch of bogus information and my final email is a "f--k you" email.

Fire guy, While I agree that it is sort of fun to play with the unwanted spammers, It is sort of like playing with fire !!! With the complexity of todays spyware and viruses, I just delete those emails that make it thru my filters as quickly as I can. If anyone receives one of these emails please forward it to one of the Moderators. We do lock these folks out as quickly as we can.AL

I've maybe gotten three of these over time. Certainly not the biggest aggravation in my life, that's for sure.

There is no harm in opening them, because they have been insulated through the RF interface and the sender has no way of knowing if you opened them or not (unlike SPAM sent directly to you, where they can usually tell if you opened a message.)

In my opinion, getting an occasional email SPAM message is not enough of an indignity to turn off the RF email feature and deprive myself of the many good exchanges I've had with real live RF'rs.

Why turn off these emails.... that is the easy way. I personally prefer to mess with these people.

I always respond and thank them for emailing me. I also tell them I am glad to help, send me more information and then I send them a bunch of bogus information and my final email is a "f--k you" email.

It is soooo much more fun!

Your response of any kind lets them know that they are reaching live bodies through roadfood and prompts them to keep trying.

Just dump in the trash!

This is much like those recorded phone calls that offer you a press 1 to talk to us or press 2 to be removed from list choice. Pressing ANYTHING lets them know it is a live phone line that is being answered and means they WILL call again and WILL sell your number to others. Much better to just hang up without a peep.

Dear Roadfooders, and thank you Miss Tara Roossy for your concern regarding my love life. ......... Let me put your minds at rest and tell you all that I and the lovely Miss Doudou are still madly in love and cheating is not in our vocabulary nor is it allowed in this African principality. Oh sure, multiple wives are allowed ( I have 23 ) but cheating is definitely look down on as sooooooooo-Utah American. Whenever the sweet Miss Doudou catches me in a tryst I just marry the lucky teenager................... it'd good to be the King

So lets put the cheating issue aside and go on ..... let me cut to the chase and tell you wonderful folks at Roadfood.com that there is indeed trouble on the Ivory Coast. To keep a long story short when I received the $46 Million from the Doudou estate I recklessly deposited it all in a Washington Mutual Bank ......... no need to tell you what happened there..... we are now broke........ so it's off to get more cash and the easiest way was to gather Roadfood.com's many e-mail address that are readily available on these pages. It did not take long for my staff to get the scam ball rolling and we have already snagged many a gullible roadfooder into thinking that it's safe to let a website expose their e-mail address. We are very pleased to find that no one and I mean no one ever listens to Al da Mayor when he gives advice on not opening e-mail that looks like it comes from the likes of Sizz, Dr. Smoke, Uncle Vic and Taraboomta........ along with Miss Doudou's letterWe also have it on good authority that Al da Mayor is now under indictment issued by a California school district were 356 ex-students of his are claiming that he was never listened too because he most always was eating something during class.Well folks it's off to the polo grounds but before I go let me thank all of you on Roadfood.com for letting the scam letter from the dear Miss Doudou live on and on and on.....

Sizz has never recovered from that 4 hour loss of airconditioning on his boat while serving in the "Nixon Navy" ! His imagination grows with every radiation treatment he undergoes. Don't fret, He uses his scam-money to build hospitals and schools for his many off-spring in the Ivory(and Plastic) Coast !

I just got one of these letters in my spam folder. Most of my mail from fellow roadfooders goes to my regular mailbox not to the spam folder. I have been a roadfood member for several years, and this is the first spam I have gotten through it, so I won't be turning off the email option.

firecommander3565- It's really funny to mess with spammers, I used to do it myself, but now it's SO dangerous for your computer and you. You don't know what kind of virus could be in the email. My friend opened a letter she thought was from her Aunt because they had the same name, unfortunatly it was spam that had passed the filters. It gave her almost brand new computer a virus, which was almost beyond repair. They also were able to get in her email and get her personal information. She was really upset for months and it cost her a fortune to straighten everything out. Please be careful!

Why turn off these emails.... that is the easy way. I personally prefer to mess with these people.

I always respond and thank them for emailing me. I also tell them I am glad to help, send me more information and then I send them a bunch of bogus information and my final email is a "f--k you" email.

A few weeks ago the NPR program "This American Life" did an audio essay about a group acting as Internet Partisan Rangers fighting these email scams. They are known as the 419 Eaters, taking their name from the Nigerian criminal code for fraud,,,section 419.

These people attack like a hockey enforcer which explains the 5 minute introduction to the piece. You will not believe what they did to an Internet scam artist from Chad. I found the audio link for your entertainment and edification. You can listen to the entire show for free if you click on the orange speaker icon that says full episode. You can download the episode for 97 cents if you prefer. Anyway, here is the link:

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1260

Fire Commander, I think you will especially enjoy this one. I just hope you don't laugh too hard.

Just wondering if the people that listened to the NPR program thought the 419 Eaters group was over the line in fighting the spam criminals or not? Certainly 419 is very aggressive and has a take no prisoners attitude, yet they can expose their targets to real dangers as was expressed in the program.

My opinion? These people get what they deserve and I approve of 419 Eaters raiding them.

Governments seem powerless against these pirates, but in fighting back in an extreme fashion, 419 seems like an effective group to me, deterring Internet crime like no one else is.